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Originally Posted by opendoor
and people reacted negatively.
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By denouncing him as a racist and bigot. Which has proven to be a highly effective tactic at silencing people.
The argument offered by critics that essays like Sweet’s are dangerous because they give ammunition to the far right is an example of “a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity” that the authors of the Harper’s letter warn about.
Most of the attacks on Sweet weren’t thoughtful and nuanced criticism of the arguments he presented. They were furious attacks on his person intended to shame and silence him. And they worked. Because too many of the adults in the room today have subordinated the liberal principles of their institutions in favour of “the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty.”